Moving Puzzle / Puzzles in Motion

Each disc contains ten thematically linked video clips transformed into puzzles. Imagine a movie cut into “tiles” and scrambled — randomly rotated and repositioned. The picture never stops moving as you work to bring a coherent movie out of the chaos. Moving Puzzle challenges our visual perception of movement and orientation.

In 1997, Von Holtzbrink Interactive, a division of Scientific American, invited me to propose an interactive project for older children. I began by asking myself, “What are computers good at?” Computers are good a manipulating data – they are very good at taking A to Z and returning Z to A – and immediately displaying the results. I began working on a series of activities, ranging from simple ciphers to toplogical exercises, all based on simple inversions. The first version was titled, “UPSIDE DOWN, INSIDE OUT & BACKWARDS.” One of the activities was based on a wood and chain puzzle from the early 20th century; I saw the chain on the grid as a path and proposed making a video puzzle. David Steuer helped develop a prototype, our first test puzzle was a clip, shot from below, of Fred Astaire dancing on a glass table top. Eventually MOVING PUZZLE was developed as a standalone project for Ravensburger Interactive GmbH in 1998. We produced a series of ten interactive CD-ROM puzzles distributed in Europe, Latin America and Japan. The Backstreet Boys and N’SYNC titles were distributed in the U.S. as Puzzles in Motion.